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It's finally time to lift the lid on another artwork commission.
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This turned out to be one of the most joyous, life affirming places that we've visited on our travels. The sparkling, late summer sunshine, the arresting modern architecture set amid so much history, the superb collection of early 20th century paintings on the 5th floor, and the throng of tourists and Parisians enjoying themselves on a Saturday combined to make this a most memorable afternoon.
"Centre Georges Pompidou commonly shortened to Centre Pompidou; also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. The Place Georges Pompidou in front of the museum is noted for the presence of street performers, such as mimes and jugglers. In the spring, miniature carnivals are installed temporarily into the place in front with a wide variety of attractions: bands, caricature and sketch artists, tables set up for evening dining, and even skateboarding competitions.
The nearby Stravinsky Fountain (also called the Fontaine des automates), on Place Stravinsky, features sixteen whimsical moving and water-spraying sculptures by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, which represent themes and works by composer Igor Stravinsky. The black-painted mechanical sculptures are by Tinguely, the colored works by de Saint-Phalle. The fountain opened in 1983.
It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information (Public Information Library), a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
The sculpture, Horizontal by Alexander Calder, a free-standing mobile that is twenty-five feet high, was placed in 2012 in front of the Centre Pompidou.
The Centre was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano; British architect Richard Rogers; and Italian architect Gianfranco Franchini, assisted by Ove Arup & Partners.The project was awarded to this team in an architectural design competition, whose results were announced in 1971. It was the first time in France that international architects were allowed to participate. World-renowned architects Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Prouvé and Philip Johnson made up the jury which would select one design out of the 681 entries.
National Geographic described the reaction to the design as "love at second sight." An article in Le Figaro declared "Paris has its own monster, just like the one in Loch Ness." But two decades later, while reporting on Rogers' winning the Pritzker Prize in 2007, The New York Times noted that the design of the Centre "turned the architecture world upside down" and that "Mr. Rogers earned a reputation as a high-tech iconoclast with the completion of the 1977 Pompidou Centre, with its exposed skeleton of brightly coloured tubes for mechanical systems. The Pritzker jury said the Pompidou "revolutionized museums, transforming what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange, woven into the heart of the city.".
Initially, all of the functional structural elements of the building were colour-coded: green pipes are plumbing, blue ducts are for climate control, electrical wires are encased in yellow, and circulation elements and devices for safety (e.g., fire extinguishers) are red."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Georges_Pompidou
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According to me it's a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious mixing of nature and editing......
It's from galaxy j7
A hoisting device has been built around Swarm's three-satellite and launch adapter assembly. This will be used to lift the assembly onto the Breeze upper stage of the Rockot launcher.
This involved mounting the lower hoisting ring to the adapter. Then three vertical beams were bolted to the lower ring. To complete the hoisting structure, a second ring was mounted to stabilise the beams.
Follow the Swarm launch campaign in our blog: blogs.esa.int/eolaunches/
Credit: ESA/M. Shafiq
This abridgement of Universal's 12-episode serial Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe as Dick Calkins' famed comic-strip space adventurer. Buck and Buddy (Jackie Moran) and are recruited to battle against modernistic gangster Killer Kane (Anthony Warde), by Wilma Deering (Constance Moore) and Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw). The duo travels to Saturn to get help in their mission, and after Buck and Buddy quell the internal struggles of the Saturnians, Buck triumphs over Killer Kane and his cosmic thugs.
Planet Outlaws Feature link: youtu.be/UD3xKy42KUY
Link to all 12 Serial Episodes:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtc-u3zFGk&feature=share&...
Starring Buster Crabbe, Constance Moore, Jackie Moran, Jack Mulhall, Anthony Warde, C. Montague Shaw, Guy Usher, William Gould, Philson Ahn. Directed by Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind.
Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade are in the middle of a trans-polar dirigible flight when they are caught in a blizzard and crash. Buddy then releases a special gas to keep them in suspended animation until a rescue party can arrive. However, an avalanche covers the craft and the two are in suspended animation for 500 years. When they are found, they awake to find out that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane. Along with Lieutenant Wilma Deering, Buck and Buddy join in the fight to overthrow Kane and with the help of Prince Tallen of Saturn and his forces, they eventually do and Earth is free of Kane's grip.
This is actually a pretty enjoyable serial, but it seems doomed to be forever overshadowed by the much superior Flash Gordon trilogy. Universal brought BUCK ROGERS out in 1939, in between their own chapterplays FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE; it also starred Buster Crabbe (but with his natural dark hair instead of Flash's golden curls) and although it is filled with space ships and weird gadgets, BUCK ROGERS lacks most of the elements that gave the Flash serials their intense emotional draw.
For one thing, there is none of the strong sexual charge that the Flash series had. Instead of nubile Dale Arden and sultry Princess Aura both competing for the hero's attention while the villain openly lusted for the heroine, Buck's epic featured Constance Moore as Col. Wilma Deering. Now, Moore is perfectly fine in her role, but she is after all a soldier in the resistance army and not a fair damsel in distress. She has a nice moment when she wrests a ray gun away from a guard and blasts her way out of her cell, but she and Buck seem to be merely chums on the same side.
Also, although BUCK ROGERS has plenty of futuristic gadgets (rayguns and buzzing spaceships which shoot sparks from their backs, teleportation tubes and invisibility rays), there are no grotesque monsters or nonhuman alien races on view. Prisoners have remarkably goofy metal helmets strapped on which turn them into docile zombies, and there are these homely goons called Zuggs moping around, but that's hardly as fascinating as Lion Men and Clay People and horned apes (that Orangapoid critter).
What's ironic about all this is that the comic strip BUCK ROGERS by Philip Nolan and Richard Calkins started in 1929, was immensely popular for many years and it success inspired the creation of Flash. Yet the Flash strip benefitted from the genius of Alex Raymond, one of the all-time great cartoon artists, and it produced stunning visual images (from the samples of Buck's strip I've seen, it was imaginative enough but pretty crude and drab). This contrast carried over to the serials.
Buck Rogers and his sidekick Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran) are pilots who crash in the Arctic in1938 and survive for 500 years because the 'Nirvano' gas they were carrying put them in a state of suspended animation. They both seem to adapt to waking up in the year 2424 pretty well, where I would think most people would be so traumatized it would take a while to adjust. In this dystopic future, the Earth is ruled by a mega-gangster called Killer Kane (another setback; Anthony Warde would be okay as a crimelord but he just doesn't have the imposing presence to convince me this guy can dominate an entire planet).
Luckily, Buck and Buddy have been found by the small resistance movement hopelessly trying to overthrow Kane from their hidden city. Here is Dr Huer (C. Montague Shaw, who I just saw in the UNDERSEA KINGDOM doing the same gig with his wild inventions) and Wilma Deering leading the good fight. For some reason I missed, everyone immediately puts all their trust in Buck and he pretty much takes over. (Maybe he's just one of those charismatic alpha males or something.) Most of the serial involves desperate trips back and forth to Saturn to enlist the aid of the isolationist Saturnians, and this means running the blockade of Kane's ships. The usual fistfights and explosions and captures and escapes normal for this sort of situation ensue. It's a lot of fun if you take it on its own terms, with a strong linear plot and likeable heroes, but it really never kicks into high gear and seems a bit drab.
It's interesting that some (but not all) of the Saturnians are played by Asian actors. Prince Tallen, who gets caught up in most of the fun, was portrayed by a very young Philson Ahn, and I thought for years this was the same guy who in 1972 impressed us as the head of the Shaolin Temple in TV's KUNG FU (he taught all the styles, really amazing if you think about it). Turns out that was Phiip Ahn, Philson's brother.
Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind - 12 Chapters
BUCK ROGERS (1939): Director Ford Beebe, who also worked on Flash Gordon (1938), came straight from The Phantom Creeps (1939) and then went back to finish Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe (1940). Buck Rogers stars Buster Crabbe or, as his family knew him, Lawrence. Now, Lawrence ‘Larry’ ‘Buster’ Crabbe had previously starred in two Flash Gordon serials, a couple of Tarzan movies and a long string of westerns, so it was only natural for Universal to decide he was perfect as the heroic Buck Rogers, aka that blonde guy who saves the universe but isn’t Flash Gordon. Actually, Buster Crabbe wasn’t the first actor to play Buck Rogers in-the-flesh, so to speak.
That honour goes to an unknown man who played Buck in a Virginia department store, instead of their regular Santa Claus. Santa was off conquering Martians at the time, I think it was an exchange program of sorts. It strikes me that Buck Rogers is not unlike a male fantasy come to life. Just think of it – Buck gets to take a nice five-hundred-year-long sleep-in. With my busy schedule, I’m ecstatic if I can get twenty minutes nap on the weekend. Then, when he wakes up, Buck is the smartest, most dynamic guy around. In reality he’d be treated like something that’s escaped from the zoo. And finally, everyone needs Buck to go on exciting missions, fight the bad guys, test exotic equipment and crash rocket ships – out of the half-dozen flights Buck makes, he only lands successfully once. It’s easy to see the bullet cars used in the movie are the same ones from Flash Gordon’s Trip To Mars (1938), and even the script is rather suspect.
Planet Outlaws
This film is actually a compilation of the Buck Rogers serials that ran originally in 1939. The cliffhanger endings and recap beginnings have been edited out to make it flow better -- with partial success. Some new footage was shot for the introduction and summary. At the opening, there are some newspaper headlines about jets chasing flying discs, and the obligatory checkered V2 launch, etc. to add a modern segue. After that, it's pure 1939.
Sci-fi movie technology had come a long way in the 14 years since Buck's debut. Audiences had grown accustomed to sleek and pointy rockets, flying saucers, strange aliens, etc. The Buck Rogers style world-of-the-future must have looked oddly quaint. (if not laughable) Just why Universal Pictures thought re-releasing Buck Rogers was a good idea is a bit of a mystery. Kids who were 8 or so back in 1939 would be young adults in '53. Perhaps Universal was banking on those young adults would buy tickets for a trip down memory lane.
Plot Synopsis
After a bit of modern ('53) footage about the wonders of modern progress and "flying disks," the old serial begins. Rogers and Buddy crashed in the arctic while on a transpolar flight. They were in suspended animation due to the cold and a vague gas. A patrol finds them in the year 2500 and revives them. In the world of 2500, a despot named Killer Kane is trying to take over the world. The forces of good are holed up in the "hidden city." Buck arranges a decoy maneuver to elude Kane's patrol ships. They fly to the planet Saturn in hopes of finding help. On Saturn, the Council sees Rogers and party as the rebels, and Kane as the rule of law. Rogers et al, escape Saturn, return to earth and seek to disrupt Kane's bamboozling of Prince Tallen, the Saturnian representative. Rogers sneaks into Kane's city, interrupts the treaty signing and convinces Tallen of Kane's evil by revealing Kane's "robot battalion" (slaves wearing mind-control helmets). Rogers and Tallen get to Saturn and the treaty is signed. Rogers escapes Kane's patrols via the Dissolvo Ray which rendered them invisible. Rogers and the war council plan for war. Rogers enlists the Saturnians to help. Meanwhile, Rogers sneaks into Kane's city and de-zombies Minister Krenco to lead an uprising of freed robot-slave-prisoners. Rogers storms Kane's palace and puts one of the robo-slave helmets on Kane. The End
The industrial vision of the future is delightful to watch. The heavily mechanical look of everything is so radically different from the sleek rockets and glowing acrylic audiences were growing accustomed to. The space ships look like they were built at locomotive factories or steamship yards. They spew roman-candle sparks and smoke and buzz as they fly. There are no computers, no radar or electronics. It's a fascinating snapshot of what pre-electronic-age people thought the future would be like.
When originally released in 1939, the Killer Kane character was a thinly disguised allusion to Hitler. In 1953, Kane was intended to represent a communist despot. It wasn't as tidy a fit. The narrator sums it up voicing a hope that scientists will develop the means for men to stand up to today's dictators and make the world safe for democracy. In the early 50s, there's little question of who they meant.
Simple Colors -- One endearing trait of Buck Rogers is the simplicity of the characterizations. The good guys do nothing but good. The bad guys are pure bad. The good guys are crack pilots and sharp shooters and tough as nails. The bad guys do nothing but bad, have trouble hitting a flying barn and are easily knocked out with one punch.
Industrial Baroque -- Somewhat like the baroque era's compulsion to decorate every square inch with swirls and filigree, Industrial Baroque sought to fill every space with heavy-duty hardware. The sets, and especially the rocket interiors are like flying boiler rooms. Valves, pipes, levers, dials, wheels, large flashing light bulbs. To look more "high tech" in the 30s meant cramming in more industrial hardware. Buck Rogers' ships show more affinity for Captain Nemo "steampunk" than the proto-space-age of the 50s.
Family Resemblance -- There is a noticeable similarity in the sets and costumes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers. Even serials of the early 50s, like Captain Video and the various Rocketman serials, look more like Flash and Buck than George Pal. The industrial baroque look and costuming are distinctive, making them almost a sub-genre of their own. In that regard, Buck has a timelessness.
Another take on the story and additional background info.
A round-the-world dirigible flight commanded by US Air Force officer Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe) encounters dangerously stormy weather above the Himalayas; said weather, along with disastrous panic on the part of Rogers’ crewmen, causes the aircraft to crash. The cowardly crewmen ditch the ship and meet quick ends, but Rogers and young Buddy Wade (Jackie Moran), son of the aircraft’s designer, survive the crash. The pair use a cylinder of “Nirvano” gas to place themselves into suspended animation until a rescue party can reach them, but an avalanche buries the ship and all searches prove fruitless; the dirigible and its two dormant inhabitants remain beneath rocks and snow for five hundred years.
Finally, in the year 2440, a spaceship unearths the wreck, and its pilots restore Buck and Buddy to consciousness. The holdovers from the 20th century soon learn that their rescuers are soldiers from the “Hidden City,” a pocket of resistance to the super-criminal who is ruling the 24th-century Earth–one “Killer” Kane (Anthony Warde). Rogers immediately pledges his support to Air Marshal Kragg (William Gould) and Scientist-General Dr. Huer (C. Montague Shaw), the leaders of the Hidden City exiles, and is soon en route to Saturn, hoping to convince that planet’s rulers to aid the Hidden City in freeing the Earth from Kane’s tyranny. To cement the Saturian alliance, Buck must battle Kane’s legions at every step of the way, with able assistance from Buddy and from Dr. Huer’s trusted aide Lieutenant Wilma Deering (Constance Moore).
Ever since its original release, Buck Rogers has stood in the shadow of Universal’s Flash Gordon serials; the studio encouraged such association by casting Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe as a different sci-fi hero, obviously hoping that the chapterplay would capitalize on the goodwill generated by Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars. The serial did succeed in reminding audiences of the Flash outings–but it reminded them of how much they had liked those serials and forced inevitable comparisons that were not in Rogers’ favor. Universal’s plans for a second Buck Rogers serial were quickly scrapped when the first outing failed to please matinee audiences; the intended Buck sequel was then replaced on the studio’s production schedule by–what else?–a third Flash Gordon chapterplay. Even today, Buck is typically dismissed by fans as a pale echo of the great Gordon serials.
It’s easy to see why Buck Rogers came as a disappointment to audiences expecting an outing in the Flash Gordon tradition. Its production design, while futuristic, is less quirky and more uniform than that of the Gordons; there are no monsters and no weird semi-human races besides the rather uninteresting Zuggs; there are also no supporting characters as developed or as interesting as Dr. Zarkov, Ming, King Vultan, the Clay King, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and other major figures in the Flash Gordon chapterplays. And yet, taken on its own terms, Buck Rogers is far from a failure; it does not approach the Flash Gordon trilogy in quality, but then few serials do.
Buck Rogers’ script, by former Mascot writers Norman Hall and Ray Trampe, is fast-moving and manages to avoid repetition for most of its length. The trip to Saturn, the attempts to convince Saturnian leader Prince Tallen (Philson Ahn) of the justice of the Hidden City’s cause, the subsequent rescue of Tallen from Kane’s city, the second journey to Saturn to cement the alliance, and the attempts of Kane’s henchman Laska (Henry Brandon) to sabotage it–all these incidents keep the narrative flowing very nicely for the serial’s first eight chapters. As in many of Trampe and Hall’s Mascot scripts, however, the writers seem to run out of plot before the serial’s end. While Chapters Nine and Ten remain interesting (with Buck being converted into a hypnotized robot, Buddy’s rescue of the hero, and an infiltration of the Hidden City by one of Kane’s men), the last two chapters have a definite wheel-spinning feel to them, throwing in a redundant third trip to Saturn and an unneeded flashback sequence.
The last-chapter climax is also something of a disappointment, with Kane being overthrown quickly and undramatically instead of being definitively crushed. Here, Trampe and Hall seem to have been leaving room for the sequel that never came and trying to avoid duplicating the dramatic but very final destruction of MIng which closed the first Flash Gordon serial (and which needed to be explained away in the second). The other weak spot of the scripting is Buck and Buddy’s rather calm reaction when they realize that their old world (and everyone in it) is dead–and their extraordinarily quick adjustment to their new one. One wouldn’t have wanted the writers to dwell on our heroes’ plight (which would be absolutely crushing in real life), but I do wish Trampe or Hall could have given Buck and Buddy a few emotional lines about their displacement before getting on to the main action; Hall in his scripts for other serials (Hawk of the Wilderness, Adventures of Red Ryder), showed himself capable of far more dramatic moments.
As already mentioned, the serial’s visuals are less varied than those of the Flash Gordon serials, but that’s not to say they aren’t impressive by serial standards. Pains seem to have been taken to avoid duplicating too much of Gordon’s “look;” the spaceship miniatures are completely different than the ships in the Gordon trilogy, while Kane’s stronghold–probably the best miniature in the serial–is not the quasi-Gothic palace of Ming but rather an ominous, futuristic-looking version of New York City, complete with towering skyscrapers. The Hidden City’s great rock gates are also nifty, and the massive Saturnian Forum (a life-size set, not a miniature) is very visually impressive. The barren Red Rock Canyon area works well as the Saturnian landscape, but I think it was a mistake to also use the Canyon as the area between the Hidden City and Kane’s capital; Saturn and Earth shouldn’t look so similar.
The only major prop or set reused from the Gordon serials are the “bullet cars” from Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars; they’re just as fun to watch in action here as in the earlier serial. Other incidental props and sets–Kane’s robot room, his mind-control helmets, the various televiewing devices, the anti-gravity belts, Dr. Huer’s invisibility ray, and the Star-Trek-like molecular transportation chamber–add further colorful touches to the serial., and are respectably represented by Universal’s always above-average array of sets and props. The Zuggs, the “primitive race” ruled by the Saturnians, are somewhat disappointing, however; while suitably grotesque-looking, they’re nowhere near as menacing or memorable–in appearance or demeanor–as their obvious inspiration, the Clay People in Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.
The serial’s action scenes are brisk and energetic, suffering not at all from a general lack of fistfights–thanks to the swift-moving direction of Ford Beebe (a Mascot veteran like writers Trampe and Hall) and his co-director Saul Goodkind (usually an editor). The few hand-to-hand tussles–most of them on the rocky hills of Saturn–are executed routinely but skillfully by Dave Sharpe, Tom Steele, Eddie Parker, and other stuntmen; the best of the bunch is the fight between Buck and a Kane man in the control room of the Hidden City, although this is more exciting for the suspenseful situation (Buck trying to close the gates that the henchman has opened to Kane’s oncoming armada) than for any particular flair in the staging.
Most of the action sequences consist of protracted chases and pursuits (both on foot and in rocketships), with occasional quick combats thrown in. Many of these lengthy chases are very exciting–particularly the long incursion into Kane’s city that occupies most of Chapters Three and Four, a great combination of action and suspense. Buddy’s later stealthy visit into Kane’s fortress to rescue Buck from the robot room, and the following escape, is also good, as are Buck’s skillful and repeated elusions of the rebellious Zuggs in Chapter Eight and the bullet car getaway in Chapter Six.
The cliffhanger endings are generally well-staged, with proper build-ups, but too many of them involve spaceship crashes that our heroes rather implausibly live through. The impressive collapsing forum at the end of Chapter Eleven and the bullet car crash at the end of Chapter Six provide nice variety amid the spaceship wrecks, but (alas) are also resolved by mere survival. Still, this is preferable to the blatantly cheating resolution of what is otherwise one the best chapter endings–Killer Kane’s pursuit of Buddy in a darkened council chamber and his apparently lethal zapping of the young hero. At least the resolution features a good stunt bit by Dave Sharpe.
The leading performances in Buck Rogers are all excellent (although most other critics would make a single exception; see below). Buster Crabbe, as always, makes a perfect serial hero–both genially cheerful and grimly serious, unassumingly polite and aggressively tough. As in the Flash Gordon trilogy, his down-to-earth attitude also helps to make the wild sci-fi happenings seem perfectly normal.
Jackie Moran (oddly “reduced” to serial acting only a year after playing Huck Finn in David O. Selznick’s big-budget classic Adventures of Tom Sawyer) does a fine job as Buddy Wade, handling his character’s frequent “golly, gee-whiz” lines in a low-key fashion that keeps Buddy from coming off as too naïve; his chipper but calm demeanor complements Crabbe’s well, and he has no problems carrying an entire chapter and part of another on his own.
Constance Moore, despite being saddled with perhaps the most unflattering costume ever worn by a serial leading lady (basically coveralls and a bathing cap), manages to come off as charming. Her Wilma Deering is self-possessed and capable-seeming but never too coldly efficient; she remains warmly likable even when piloting spaceships or explaining technology to Crabbe.
Henry Brandon is very good as Killer Kane’s chief henchman Captain Laska–suave and sly when acting as Kane’s ambassador to Saturn, haughtily arrogant when threatening people, and nervously jittery in the presence of his overbearing leader. Hard-bitten tough guys Wheeler Oakman and Reed Howes, along with the slicker Carleton Young , form Brandon’s backup squad.
As Killer Kane himself, perennial henchman actor Anthony Warde has been almost universally panned by critics as “miscast.” I have to dissent strongly, however; Warde does a fine job in the part and plays Kane with a memorable combination of viciousness and uncontrollable anger. The character is not a diabolical schemer like Ming, but rather a super-gangster who’s blasted and bullied his way to the top–and Warde’s bad-tempered, aggressive, and thuggish screen personality fits the part perfectly. He veers between intimidating ranting and harshly sinister sarcasm–as when he describes himself as a “kindly ruler” just after wrathfully sending a formerly trusted councilor to the robot room–but is quite menacing in both aspects.
Philson Ahn, brother of frequent serial and feature actor Phillip Ahn, does a good job as Prince Tallen of Saturn; he possesses his sibling’s deep and distinctive voice, which serves him well as a planetary dignitary. His manner also has a slightly tougher edge to it than his refined brother’s, which helps to keep the viewer in uncertainty in the earlier chapters as to whether Tallen will turn out to be friend or foe. Guy Usher plays Aldar, the head of Saturn’s ”Council of the Wise,” and does his best to seem suitably imposing and dignified, despite the almost comical way in which the “Wise” continually change their opinions–backing Kane, opposing him, giving into his demands, defying him, etc. Cyril Delevanti is enjoyable as a grumpy subordinate member of the Council.*
C. Montague Shaw has limited screen time, but is very good as Dr. Huer, balancing statesmanlike dignity with shrewdness and a touch of enjoyable scientific eccentricity (the last is particularly noticeable during his demonstration of his invisibility gas in Chapter Five). Energetic Jack Mulhall is typically affable and enthusiastic as Captain Rankin of the Hidden City, while Kenne Duncan has a rare good guy role as Mulhall’s fellow-officer Lieutenant Lacy. Perennial screen “underworld rat” John Harmon also plays against type as a Hidden City soldier, as does Stanley Price as a Hidden City pilot rescued from existence as a human robot. The dignified but stolid William Gould is good enough as Air Marshal Kragg, but I would have preferred a more dynamic actor in the role–Kragg is, after all, the top military leader of Kane’s enemies. Mulhall could have handled it well, as could Wade Boteler–who does an excellent job as the grim and concerned Professor Morgan in the first chapter, intensely instructing Buddy and Buck in the use of the Nirvano gas.
Lane Chandler also appears in the first chapter, as a military officer who demonstrates the Nirvano gas to a reporter played by another old pro, Kenneth Harlan. An unusually subdued Theodore Lorch is one of Kane’s councilors, while Karl Hackett has a good part as another councilor who gets into an argument with Kane that leads to Hackett’s being converted into a human robot (his terrified pleas as he’s dragged out of the council chamber are quite chilling). Al Bridge has some memorably sinister lines (“when this helmet is in place, you’ll never think or speak again”) in his periodic scenes as the slave-master of Kane’s human robots.
Unusually for Universal, several bit roles are filled by stuntmen; Eddie Parker and Tom Steele pop in as various soldiers and officers, but aren’t as noticeable as Dave Sharpe, who’s given multiple speaking roles as a Kane soldier, a Hidden City soldier, a Saturnian officer, and a Saturnian soldier. His ubiquity can get a little distracting at times, particularly since some of his appearances follow right on the previous one’s heels; he also seems to have a bit of trouble with the formal-sounding Saturnian dialogue, coming off as much more stiff and affected than in his co-starring turn in Daredevils of the Red Circle.
The serial’s music score, like most other Universals of the period, is an eclectic but usually effective array of stock music, some of it cues from the Flash Gordon serials but the majority of it culled from Universal’s horror features, including (most notably) Franz Waxman’s score for Bride of Frankenstein, which furnishes some memorable opening-titles music.
All in all, though Buck Rogers has its share of flaws, it also has more than enough virtues (the acting, the fast pace, the interesting sci-fi trappings) to make it a good chapterplay. Despite its similar themes, it shouldn’t be pitted against the Flash Gordon trilogy–a match it’s bound to lose–but rather judged against the field of competition in general. When judged in this fashion, it’s just as entertaining–and often more entertaining–than many serials with less shabby reputations.
*One has to wonder, though, why some Saturnians are Orientals like Ahn and others Occidentals like Usher and Delevanti; my own theory is that men from various countries emigrated from Earth to Saturn sometime before the bulk of the serial took place; this would explain the racial assortment and also explain why the Hidden City chooses Saturn in particular as an ally (as usual, I’m probably putting too much thought into this).
In September of 2004, John L. Hennessy, President of Stanford University, made the unprecedented decision to reject Device to Root Out Evil, a sculpture that had been commissioned by the President's Panel on Art by the American sculptor Dennis Oppenheim. Hennessy feared a potential controversy because the sculpture is an inverted church. In a statement, Hennessy said the piece was "not appropriate" for the campus.
Following this announcement, the local and national press reported a dismayed and sometimes outraged reaction to the President’s verdict from those who felt that the University should not use hidden decisions to avoid controversy.
Later, Oppenheim has announced that the Benfic Foundation, a private foundation, located in Vancouver, British Columbia has purchased "Device to Root Out Evil" for over three-hundred thousand dollars and it is permanently installed at Harbour Green Park, the longest continuous waterfront park in downtown Vancouver. At the present site, the twenty-five foot aluminum structure shimmers against the waterfront background. Hand-blown deep red glass shingles and blue-glass windows reflect sunlight during the day and are illuminated from within at night. The sculpture's new home enables Vancouver citizens and visitors to permanently enjoy the conversation which Device to Root Out Evil evokes. The sculpture is part of the The Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale Open Spaces 2005/2006.
The artist maintains that his interest is in exploring the dialogue between architecture and sculpture. Device to Root Out Evil "withdraws functionality from architecture." To those reading religion into the work, he answers that "Turning the church upside down makes it more aggressive, but not blasphemous."
This clever device is actually chopsticks for those, like me, who have never mastered the art of using real chopsticks. You grasp it beyond where the spring is and you can pick up all sorts of delectable goodies. Will put up the grasp picture in a bit.
…….Btw, I have no clue where I got these- probably a yard sale or donation store! Either here or maybe in the Netherlands when I was visiting my DD.
"Everyone who had serious philosophical conundra [on the subject of restoring your life from backup] just, you know, /died/, a generation before. The Bitchun Society didn't need to convert its detractors, just outlive them."
My new toy is a Nokia 770, which you can at this moment get on your doorstep for US$140. Add another $30 and get a big-ass memory chip for it, too.
Nokia released the N800 early this year, which has driven the cost of these puppies down significantly. There is not a huge difference in them, either. The N800 is slightly faster and sleeker and there's some software (like Skype) that will run on it only.
But, this is doing fine for me. I collected software and tips to make it kewl together into a single place.
It's pleasantly legible and usable as an e-book reader. I put a Zeroconf announcer and a secure-shell daemon on it.
I put a web server on it so all my gratis et libre e-books and 2GiB of music are reachable by anyone within wifi distance of me.
I have an instant-messaging program running, and if I'm on the 'Net (wifi or Bluetooth to mobile phone), I can make and receive VoIP 'phone calls. (So, lacking Skype isn't that big of a deal.)
Not that it's my bag, exactly, it emulates most of handheld game systems, and even old arcade games. The web browser is pretty good, and the RSS reader is sufficient. There's an email client, but I haven't tried it.
If the length so far of gushing enthusiasm isn't enough of a signal, I kinda like it.
This is a second set of a couple hundred photos taken in Havana, Cuba in December 2011. The first set, which included what I felt were the best 100 photos of the 3500+ images, was uploaded earlier. You can find it here on Flickr
Another example of life being observed from a second floor balcony, up above the Prado.
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As I suggested in my first set of Cuba photos on Flickr, the notion of traveling to Cuba is -- at least for many Americans today -- probably like that of traveling to North Korea. It's off-limits, forbidden by the government -- and frankly, why would anyone bother? But for someone like me, who spent his childhood in the Cold War era of the 1950s, and who went off to college just after Castro took power, and just before the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis, the notion of traveling to Cuba has entirely different overtones.
And yet Cuba is only 90 miles away from Key West (as we were reminded so often in the 1960s), and its climate is presumably no different than a dozen of Caribbean islands I've visited over the years. Numerous friends have made quasi-legal trips to Cuba over the years, flying in from Canada or Mexico, and they've all returned with fabulous pictures and great stories of a vibrant, colorful country. So, when the folks at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops sent out a notice in November 2011, announcing a series of photo workshops in Havana, we couldn't resist the temptation to sign up.
Getting into Cuba turned out to be trivial: an overnight stay in Miami, a 45-minute chartered flight operated by American Airlines, and customs/immigration formalities that turned out to be cursory or non-existent. By mid-afternoon, our group was checked into the Parque Central Hotel in downtown Havana -- where the rooms were spacious, the service was friendly, the food was reasonably tasty, the rum was delicious, and the Internet was … well, slow and expensive.
We had been warned that that some of our American conveniences -- like credit cards -- would not be available, and we were prepared for a fairly spartan week. But no matter how prepared we might have been intellectually, it takes a while to adjust to a land with no Skype, no Blackberry service, no iPhone service, no phone-based Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. I was perfectly happy that there were no Burger Kings, no Pizza Huts, no Wendys, no Starbuck's, and MacDonalds. There was Coke (classic), but no Diet Coke (or Coke Light). There were also no police sirens, no ambulance sirens, and no church bells. There were no iPods, and consequently no evidence of people plugged into their music via the thin white earplugs that Apple supplies with their devices. No iPads, no Kindles, no Nooks, no … well, you get the picture. (It's also worth noting that, with U.S. tourists now beginning to enter the country in larger numbers, Cuba seems to be on the cusp of a "modern" invasion; if I come back here in a couple years, I fully expect to see Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets on every corner.)
But there were lots of friendly people in Havana, crowding the streets, peering out of windows and doorways, laughing and shouting and waving at friends and strangers alike. Everyone was well-dressed in clean clothes (the evidence of which could be seen in the endless lines of clothing hanging from laundry lines strung from wall to wall, everywhere); but there were no designer jeans, no fancy shoes, no heavy jewelry, and no sign of ostentatious clothing of any kind. Like some other developing countries, the people were sometimes a little too friendly -- constantly offering a taxi ride, a pedicab ride, a small exchange of the "official" currency (convertible pesos, or "cuqs") for the "local" currency (pesos), a great meal or a great drink at a nearby restaurant or bar, a haircut, a manicure, or just a little … umm, well, friendship (offers for which ran the gamut of "señor" to "amigo" to "my friend"). On the street, you often felt you were in the land of the hustle; but if you smiled, shook your head, and politely said, "no," people generally smiled and back off.
As for the photography: well, I was in one of three different workshop groups, each of which had roughly a dozen participants. The three dozen individual photographers were well equipped with all of the latest Nikon and Canon gear, and they generally focused on a handful of subjects: buildings and architecture, ballet practice sessions, cockfights, boxing matches, rodeos, fishing villages, old cars, interiors of people's homes, street scenes, and people. Lots of people. As in every other part of the world I've visited, the people were the most interesting. We saw young and old, men and women, boisterous children, grizzled elders, police officers, bus drivers, and people of almost every conceivable race.
The streets were clean, though not spotless; and the streets were jammed, with bicycles and motorbikes and pedi-cabs, taxis, buses, horse-and-carriages, pedestrians, dogs (lots of dogs, many sleeping peacefully in the middle of a sidewalk), and even a few people on roller skates. And, as anyone who has seen photos of Havana knows, there were lots and lots and LOTS of old cars. Plymouths, Pontiacs, Dodges, Buicks, and Chevys, along with the occasional Cadillac. A few were old and rusted, but most had been renovated, repaired, and repainted -- often in garishly bright colors from every spectrum of the rainbow. Cherry pink, fire-engine red, Sunkist orange, lime green, turquoise and every shade of blue, orange, brown, and a lot more that I've probably forgotten. All of us in the photo workshop succumbed to the temptation to photograph the cars when we first arrived … but they were everywhere, every day, wherever we went, and eventually we all suffered from sensory overload. (For what it's worth, one of our workshop colleagues had visited Cuba eight years ago, and told us that at the time, there were only old cars in sight; now roughly half of the cars are more-or-less modern Kia's, Audis, Russian Ladas, and other "generic" compact cars.)
The one thing I wasn't prepared for in Havana was the sense of decay: almost no modern buildings, no skyscrapers, and very little evidence of renovation. There were several monstrous, ugly, vintage-1950s buildings that oozed "Russia" from every pore. But the rest of the buildings date back to the 40s, the 30s, the 20s, or even the turn of the last century. Some were crumbling, some were just facades; some showed evidence of the kind of salt-water erosion that one sees near the ocean. But many simply looked old and decrepit, with peeling paint and broken stones, like the run-down buildings in whatever slum you're familiar with in North America. One has a very strong sense of a city that was vibrant and beautiful all during the last half of the 19th century, and the first half of the 20th century -- and then time stopped dead in its tracks.
Why that happened, and what's being done about it, is something I didn't have a chance to explore; there was a general reluctance to discuss politics in great detail. Some of Havana looks like the less-prosperous regions of other Caribbean towns; and some of it is presumably the direct and/or indirect result of a half-century of U.S. embargo. But some of it seems to be the result of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and the subsequent collapse of foreign aid that Cuba depended upon.
As for my own photos: I did not attend the ballet practice sessions, nor did I see the rodeo. I did see some interesting graffiti on a few walls, which I photographed; but for some reason, I missed almost all of the numerous political billboards and stylized paintings of Che Guevera on buildings and walls. What I focused on instead was the "street scenes" of people and buildings and cars, which will hopefully give you a sense of what the place is like.
Enjoy!
This gentleman looks sad in this photo but I was able to eavesdrop a bit, and he was just having a normal convo with a friend. I took the picture because of the enormous electronic device on his arm. I see a lot of these as I drift around. What the hell are people wearing on their arms? You could take an EKG with a device this size. Hell you could probably run an airport.
Hello Reddit!!
If you haven't had the PLEASURE of playing portal OR portal 2... YOU ARE MISSING OUT MY FRIENDS. Anyways, I was so enamored with the 50's portion of this second installment that I had to make some designs. Should I play through the game again?
YES.
This device was used for a few years for skid training. It raised or lowered the wheels of the ambulance and reduced traction at front, rear or side - or all at once! No longer restricted to a skid pan, the service could train on large spaces such as airfields.
Leyland DAF Customline - this was the time of transition between the V8 petrol and the puny Diesel!
Rear view of the smoked elk KAFO leg braces. This client also received a bonus, 2" wide metal bands as opposed to the standard 1.5" rear bands. These bands were leather covered but highly polished rear bands are available, the are very shiny and almost look like chrome. This picture also shows the 5th straps on the knee pads. 5 buckled knee pads are the most restrictive type of knee control hardware that are used on this type of brace. I have made other types of knee control devices but they hold the knee straight at all times (see the leg spreader pictures) and will not allow for a bent knee position. We also use a three point attachment system for attaching cuffs to braces, note the rivets in the rear bands. This system does not allow the cuff to "float" in the rear band. Floating cuffs wear faster and also mark up the outside of the leather, our braces look and feel better because of this. Contact me at my1970junk@msn.com if you would like braces for yourself. If you desire leg braces check out flickr group "Leg Brace Desires" I just started it in an attempt to help recreational bracers the chance to get their own braces.
Dan Jones reaches to rotate his float device as he exits the water after one of the swims in the SwimRun competition.
Competitors in the SwimRun event participate in teams of two people and perform a series of alternating swim and run legs. Besides their swimsuit, race cap, bib and timing chip, racers are allowed certain optional approved gear items but they must start and finish the race with all their chosen gear.
For more information or to sign up for next year's SwimRun event to be held Saturday, May 2, 2020, click on SwimRun.
JTH_6473
"King's Ringer" -
© 2017 - SJS Photography - All Rights Reserved
One of the images I took during the 48 hr. 2017 Annual "One Weekend in Whittier" #1wkndWhit photography event from 3/31/17 to 4/2/17.
Camera & Settings: Sony a6000, Sony 35mm f1.8 lens, ISO 100, f/8 @ 1/250 sec.
I was walking around "The Quad" shopping area in Whittier on Painter and Whittier Blvd. I wanted to find some more historic Whittier pictures, so I knew I had to get this shot and edit it in sepia tones. These bells are part of the original El Camino Real ("Kings Highway"). You can read about the great restoration project that was undertaken for these bells here in this LA Times article from 2004: articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/24/local/me-bells24
Edited primarily using Adobe Creative Cloud's Lightroom Mobile app on my tablet. I was having fun one night with the ability to quickly edit images using only my tablet device. Finished off on my laptop in Lightroom v2015.10 Image has: split toning, increased contrast and a vignette applied.
Everyone has a right to access our public lands, but few of Glacier's trails were created with accessibility in mind.
A first step to addressing limits to accessibility is to identify them.
Glacier and the National Park Service are using tools—like the orange, one-wheeled device a ranger is pictured here using—to evaluate trails in the park using the High Efficiency Trail Assessment Process (HETAP).
HETAP identifies trail variables: grade, cross-slope, trail width, surface material, and more.
This data allows park managers to prioritize future trail improvements, and allow visitors in the future to make more informed decisions.
An Oshkosh Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) with a mine roller attachment provides security in the Wanake Valley, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, Sep. 3, 2011. The mine roller is used to detonate improvised explosive devices before they have a chance to harm service-members riding in the vehicle. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Kristina Truluck/Released)
at first i thought it was written in french, dog of a panel to make but back lighting came out surprisingly well. hardest part is making the windows grey, not yellow and green like everyone else does, and zero light bleed through between chambers. still needs some work
in my quest to bring you unusual/unique things-- found this at ward's berry farm today. googled it when i got home and it is a device for taking the kernels off of a corn cob-- and i am assuming from the comments it works well on dried corn too.
This image is a First Day of Issue cover commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. It features a Colorano "Silk" cachet and the signature of Leonard Greene.
Details of the Cover:
Subject: The cover commemorates the 75th anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright's first powered flight, which occurred on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Stamp: It features a 31-cent US Airmail stamp (Scott Catalog #C92) issued in 1978, which depicts Orville and Wilbur Wright and a Wright Flyer aircraft.
Cachet: The "Colorano Silk" cachet is a full-color illustration printed on a satin-finish fabric and bonded to the envelope, framed with a gold embossed border. This style of cachet was popular among collectors for its unique look.
The "Colorano Silk" cachet was created by Ray Novak, the founder of Colorano Publishers. The company was established in 1965, initially specializing in maximum cards, before pivoting to first day covers (FDCs) in 1971.
Key Information:
Founder: Ray Novak (b. 1928 in Brooklyn, NY)
Company Name: Colorano Publishers (later Colorano Silk Cachets)
Inception of Silk Cachets: The first official Colorano "Silk" cachet FDC was for the "America's Wool" stamp issued on January 19, 1971.
Process: Inspired by French company Ceres' silk cachets, Novak developed a method to print full-color designs on satin-finish fabric and permanently bond them to envelopes with a golden embossed border. The unique, silky feel of the fabric gave the product its name.
Ownership Changes: Novak ran the company until his retirement in 1995, when he sold it to Paul Schmid. Schmid continued production until 2016, when the company was acquired by Mystic Stamp Company.
Ray Novak created a very popular and distinct style of first day cover that is recognizable to collectors by its unique fabric finish and bright illustrations.
Postmark: The circular date stamp (CDS) cancel is from Dayton, Ohio 45401, dated SEP 23 1978, which is the official first day of issue for this stamp.
Signature: The prominent handwritten signature is that of Leonard Greene. While general first day covers from this era typically have minimal value, an authentic signature could potentially add collector value, depending on the person's notability and the signature's provenance.
Leonard Greene (1918-2006) was a highly impactful American inventor, aerodynamics engineer, and philanthropist known for pioneering aviation safety technologies. He is most famous for inventing the aircraft stall warning device, a critical safety instrument now standard on virtually all fixed-wing aircraft worldwide.
Life and Work:
Aviation Safety Pioneer: Working as an aerodynamicist and test pilot for Grumman Aircraft during World War II, Greene witnessed a fatal stall accident. This led him to develop the stall warning indicator, which alerts pilots when a wing is in danger of losing the lift needed to stay airborne. This device has been called "the greatest lifesaver since the invention of the parachute".
LINK to video - Airplane Stall Warning Device - www.youtube.com/shorts/gCQkMQZz15c
Founder of Safe Flight: In 1946, Greene founded the Safe Flight Instrument Corporation to manufacture and market his inventions. The company became a leader in aviation safety, developing other crucial systems like automatic throttles and wind shear warning systems, which are now commonplace in modern aircraft.
Inventor & Innovator: Holding more than 200 patents, Greene's interests extended beyond aviation. His other inventions included a three-dimensional chess game and a device to help blind painters use musical notes to identify colors.
Philanthropist: Beyond his business success, Greene applied his wealth and expertise to charitable causes. He co-founded the Corporate Angel Network in 1981, a non-profit organization that arranges free transportation on corporate jets for cancer patients traveling to treatment centers.
Connection to Wright Brothers: Greene's signature on the First Day of Issue cover is a meaningful addition, as he was a major figure in the field of aviation safety and innovation, continuing the legacy of the Wright brothers by making flight safer for millions. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991 for his contributions. LINK - www.invent.org/inductees/leonard-michael-greene#:~:text=L....
I have never seen a more charming rendering of the animals of the Chinese zodiac than the ones on a marvelous device that is on the underside of the gate to the shrine. They would be right at home in a children's book. Who are your favorites?
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"Inside the main gate, I crane my neck to see the eto ehou ban overhead. This circular disc features the twelve Chinese zodiac signs as well as the kanji characters for North, South, East and West. Each year on New Year’s Eve, the central spinner is pointed to the new lucky direction. For me, it points west-south-west."
japanjourneys.jp/fukuoka/attractions/temples-shrines/kush...
When I first examined this object, I misunderstood it. I assumed the arrow on the dial at the center is intended to mark the current year in the Chinese zodiac. Since we were there in the part of 2024 that was the Year of the Dragon, I was puzzled that the arrow pointed to a pair of fearsome looking tigers.
Based on what I knew and assumed about Japan and the Japanese, it seemed inconceivable that the shrine would have neglected to set the dial to the correct year.
My skepticism was rewarded when I learned that the object is more than a circle of the Chinese zodiac. As stated above, the new year's lucky direction is determined by a spin of the dial on New Year's Eve.
So, what was the lucky direction for 2024, which is when I took this photo?
If has proven devilishly difficult to find the answer.
One thing that's certain is the characters for the cardinal directions surround the dial, and each character rests on a background of a different color.
In Chinese tradition and in Japan, the colors associated with the cardinal directions are:
East - Green/Blue
South - Red
West - White
North - Black
That scheme does not match the Eto Ehou Ban's. None of the background colors are black or white. There is no blue-green field.
Furthermore, if Google Translate is correct, the cardinal directions are not in the correct relation to one another. According to Google, the directions are ordered as follows:
---------------NORTH
----EAST---------------WEST
---------------SOUTH
That requires the following color scheme:
---------------N. Blue
----E. Red-------------W. Yellow
---------------S. Green
To further confuse matters, according to several sources on the Internet, the directions in traditional Chinese characters are:
North 北
South 南
East 东
West 西
In Japanese they are:
North 北
South 南
East 東
West 西
The only difference is the character for "east," which is identical to the one on the Eto Ehou Ban
I can't read Chinese or Japanese, but I can compare the characters. In my judgment, all four correspond to one of the characters on the Eto Ehou Ban.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the arrangement of the cardinal directions on the Eto Ehou Ban does not match the compass:
---------------N. 北
--E. 东 東 ----------W. 西
---------------S. 南
How can that be?
The only way this arrangement would make sense would be if one were to view the characters from behind. To do that they way the Eto Ehou Ban is oriented, one would need to be above them, in the heavens (and be able to see through wood).
In any case, the lucky direction in 2024 was north-northeast. What is the meaning of a lucky direction in the Shinto religion?
Here's the closest I have come to an answer:
The New Year is the most important holiday in Japan, a time to gather and share traditions with family. It truly represents a new beginning. Events before, during, and after the New Year are about getting rid of the previous year’s “pollution” and beginning the new year with a clean start.
A popular activity leading up to December 31 is the year-end drinking party called bōnenkai (忘年会). It literally means “forgetting of the year” to be able to start anew in the next year. It’s a time for purification and renewal, to pay off debts and conclude business, and to thoroughly clean the home to start clean and fresh in the new year, as well as to welcome the New Year kami (deities) into the house.
In Japan historically, the beginning of a new year was a time when the spirit world would draw closer to the physical world, giving the kami an opportunity to visit. Good spirits are welcomed for the blessings they bring. A kami who visits during the New Year is called Shogatsu-sama, or Lord New Year. The male deity Toshi-gami is considered a visiting New Year kami, and the female deity is called Toshi-tokujin. She is a deity of auspicious directions (ehō) and so whichever direction she inhabits becomes the luckiest direction of the year. Onmyōji (yin-yang diviners) determine ehō (the lucky direction) at the start of the new year.
How does Toshi know you want him/her to visit your house? Kadomatsu, or “Gate Pine”, is a traditional New Year decoration made from pine, bamboo, and plum trees, and is intended to invite the deity Toshi-gami to visit one’s home or business to bring blessings and a good harvest. The kadomatsu are often set in front of a home or business in pairs, one on either side of the gate, to represent both male and female deities.
/ / /
Hatsumōde is the first visit to a shrine in the new year, and one might choose to pray at a shrine located in the year’s lucky direction on New Year’s Day.
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Many of us who fly regularly have most probably seen a so-called winglet or wingtip device at the end of the wing of an airliner at least once. It is showing up more and more often on more and more types of aircraft, thus we felt it’s time to give an overview to our readers about these sometimes funny, sometimes cool and stylish looking aircraft parts.
History, Reason and Benefits
The initial theoretical concept goes back to times before even the Wright Brothers first took to the skies in 1905, but it was picked up and developed by Richard T. Whitcomb of NASA after the 1973 oil crisis – in order to reduce fuel consumption. The first tests were carried out in 1979/80 in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force. At almost the same time, but independent of any U.S. military organization, a private jet producer, LearJet exhibited a prototype in 1977: the LearJet 28 that featured the first winglets on a jet and a production aircraft. Flight tests made with and without winglets showed that the winglets increased range by about 6.5 percent and also improved directional stability for the LearJet- these two factors are the major reasons behind using this facility at any fixed wing aircraft ever since. A winglet is a (near) vertical extension of the wing tips. The upward angle of the winglet, its inward angle as well as its size and shape are critical for correct performance – this is why they can look quite different. Air rotating around the wing strikes the surface of the winglet that directs it in another direction – thus creating an extra force, basically converting otherwise wasted energy to thrust. This is a small contribution but can save a lot for an operator in an aircraft’s lifetime. Another potential benefit of winglets is that they reduce the strength of wingtip vortices, which trail behind the plane. When other aircraft pass through these vortices, the turbulent air can cause loss of control, possibly resulting in an accident.
Winglet Types
In general any wingtips that not end the wing simply horizontally are considered as some kind of a winglet. Even though in strictly technical terms Wingtip Fences are not real extensions of the wing, and Raked Wingtips do not have a vertical part, they are still widely considered as winglet variants.
WINGTIP FENCES are a special variant of winglets, that extend both upward and downward from the tip of the wing. Preferred by European plane-maker Airbus, it is featured on their full product range (except the A330/340 family and the future A350). The Airbus A300 was actually the first jet airliner to feature this kind of solution by default, but it was a very small version of the tool. Provided that most of the Airbus planes (including all A320 family jets) feature such wingtip fences, this may be the most seen and most produced winglet type. Even the new Airbus A380 double-decker features wingtip fences.
BLENDED WINGLETS (the real “Winglets”) are the most popular winglet type, leveraged by Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier but also by Russian Tupolev and Iljushin. Blended winglets were first introduced on the McDonnel Douglas MD-11 aircraft in 1990 with launch customer Finnair (it also features a smaller winglet at the bottom side of the wing). In contrast to Airbus who applies the wingtip fences by default on most of their aircraft (and the winglets on the A330/340 family), blended winglets are considered by Boeing for example as an optional extra feature on their products, except for the Boeing 747-400. For some of the older Boeing jets (737 and 757) such blended winglets have been offered as an aftermarket retrofit, these are the newer, tall designs and do not connect to the tip of the wing with a sharp angle, but with a curve instead. These winglets are popular among airlines that fly these aircraft on medium/long haul routes as most of the real fuel savings materialize while cruising. Longer flights mean longer cruising, thus larger fuel savings. And they also server as marketing surface for airline logos or web addresses usually.
Just recently the Boeing 767-300ER has received 3.4 m high (!) winglets produced by Aviation Partners Inc. with American Airlines as the launch-customer with Air New Zealand and Hawaiian Airlines following with orders of 5 and 8 aircrafts respectively. 141 shipsets have been pre-sold already as the forecasted fuel savings range around 4%-6% for medium/long-range flights. Airbus earlier tested similar blended winglets designed by Winglet Technology for the A320 series, but determined that their benefits did not warrant further development and they stayed with the wingtip fences instead. Aviation Partners Boeing claims that winglets on 737s and 757s have saved a collective 1.2 billion gal. of fuel since they were introduced and 11.5 million tonnes of CO2 while reducing those types’ noise footprint by 6.5%. It has sold winglets to 140 airlines and 95% of all 737NGs are fitted with them. It is working on four winglet concepts for the 777 and hopes to finalize a design for that aircraft type by December, 2008.
G-TCCB - 40067F - Thomas Cook Airlines - Boeing 767-31K (28865)